Junkyard Steels-Agricultural Steel 1080

[ede]

Can anyone expound further what is considered 1080 in agricultural steels?   I'm referencing the Junkyard Steel page that's been passed around for awhile.   I understand this chart to discuss more early agricultural equipment and understand that it's an educated guess at best to truly know what junkyard steels are.  

Also, can someone tell me what's the difference between a harrow disc and a plow disc?   I notice they don't mention harrow spikes and am curious if they made a typo?   If anyone has any further references, I have a prime picking opportunity and would like to avail myself to any good material.  

From the list:

Agricultural Steel: 1080

Harrow Disk 1080 (What's the difference between this and a Plow Disc?)

Hay Rake Teeth 1095 (Dump Rake tine?)

I have used these for fire strikers and wine bottle openers. 

Plow Beams 1070

What do these look like? 

Plow Disk 1080

Plow Shares 1080

For instance are these spike harrows considered 1080?  

Field removal of these hay rake teeth without a gas axe and limited battery life on an angle grinder with cut off wheel seems tricky.  

[lary]

For what it is worth, the hay rake teeth are held on with a nut, bolt and clamp for easy replacement. They take quite a beating, so I'd be concerned about their integrity unless you plan on making something ornamental out of them. 

[ede]

I have made scribes, fire steels and wine bottle openers from them.   They seemed to have held up.  Have you experienced any teeth coming apart while forging or afterwards?  

Edited June 30, 2024 by Mod30
Excessive quoting

[ede]

I forgot to add that as rusty as the nuts and bolts are, I doubt a penetrating oil would work.  This dump rake  has been sitting probably for 50-75 plus years.   

Edited June 30, 2024 by Mod30
Excessive quoting

[Frosty]

I believe harrow and plow disks are just different names for the same thing but you can pull the metal specs of modern ones and check. It's unlikely the specs for the old ones will be easy to find but if there's no need for different steels nobody would spec different ones.

A single jack sledge hammer and chisel will split those nuts just fine or even shear the rake tines. If the whole thing is up for grabs use a hack saw on the angle iron. Heck a good quality box wrench and 6' cheater will unscrew them or snap the tines. Wear eye protection whatever you try!

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Whenever I go to a junk yard, I always take my nut splitter with me. To answer your question about hay rake teeth coming apart while forging, yes I have found out they are very heat sensitive, I posted a thread about that sometime back.

 

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

It was in 2017 and I can't find the thread but I have some pictures of it. I was forging a hanging loop for a large kettle. I had no trouble forging the ends but when I tried to forge the center in my coal forge, it just fell apart. Probably because I wasn't paying attention and over heated it.

 

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

 

[ede]

Good idea regarding the nut splitter, I recently acquired one.   I know someone who has new old stock dump rake tines, I will have to figure out a fair offer for them if he still has them.  

10 hours ago, Frosty said:

A single jack sledge hammer and chisel will split those nuts just fine or even shear the rake tines. If the whole thing is up for grabs use a hack saw on the angle iron. Heck a good quality box wrench and 6' cheater will unscrew them or snap the tines. Wear eye protection whatever you try!

 

Good idea Frosty.  This is out in the field and I don’t want to be using a pipe wrench on each square nut.  However, I do have a portaband I can try and cut the angle iron that connects the longer u shaped tines to try and salvage them.

  

 

[Frosty]

Not a pipe wrench, a box wrench, like you'd use to turn a nut or bolt head only closed to box the bolt head in. They don't spread open like an open end wrench will if applying abusive amounts of torque. A 12 point will hold 4 six sided nuts/bolts. 

Cutting 2" x 1/4" angle iron with a hack saw takes less than 1 minute with the right blade and basic technique. I like hack saws they are so much lighter than a porta band.

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

Apeakin of cutting steel "in the field", has anyone tried a cordless angle grinder?  If so, how did it work?  And how long does 1 charge on the battery last?  I can see one as also being a portable spark tester when looking at unknown metal.

GNM

[ede]

23 hours ago, Frosty said:

Not a pipe wrench, a box wrench, like you'd use to turn a nut or bolt head only closed to box the bolt head in. They don't spread open like an open end wrench will if applying abusive amounts of torque. A 12 point will hold 4 six sided nuts/bolts. 

Ah yeah forgot they are called that as well.  I usually call those combination wrenches.   I’ve used 8 point sockets for doing what you mentioned but never with a 12 point box wrench.  I may have to try that.  

22 hours ago, George N. M. said:

Apeakin of cutting steel "in the field", has anyone tried a cordless angle grinder?  If so, how did it work?  And how long does 1 charge on the battery last?  

I use one and it really depends on the brand and how much you want to spend on a battery.   The battery size can far exceed the price of the angle grinder.  They are handy but a large LI-ION battery is essential.   I would also stick with one of the big names in that type of power tool.  I have used it for field testing as well.  

[George N. M.]

Ede, thanks for the tip.  I'll look around at what is available.

G

[lary]

On 6/30/2024 at 6:19 AM, ede said:

 Have you experienced any teeth coming apart while forging or afterwards?  

Hadn't forged any, I was going by my experience in reusing them on a latter model hay rake. Local scrap yard had one from the early 1900's. My ground propelled Case hay rake, probably from the early 1960's had the same teeth. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for them to all brake while raking hay. I think I used a boxed end and socket wrench to remove them. If I were to do it again, I'd try a cordless impact, assuming they aren't square head nuts. Now that I think of it, those might have been carriage bolts. 

[Nobody Special]

Make sure you look at reviews for the lifespan of the battery over the use cycle too, not just individual use life. When a certain light green power tool set first started showing up everywhere in the early 2000s they had fantastic tools for the price, with a decent battery life, and I used them daily in a warehouse job, but after a few months the batteries stopped holding a charge for a decent amount of time and for the replacement cost it was almost as cheap to buy the tool over again. I understand that they're much better now, but they're also more expensive. I've had the same problem with cheap cell phones. The one I've got now was good for almost two days when I first got it, and now I've got to have it on the charger by 3.

For nuts - If you've got limited battery life - a quick scoring of the nut followed by splitting it with a chisel works well to get them off. Depending on how bad the rust is, you can sometimes use the chisel to start the nut turning too if you're trying to preserve the male threads. Sometimes, although favorite is penetrating oil and an impact wrench.

For the original question, is maybe, sometimes. Even when the chart came out there was a lot of variance. It's a good bet that anything hardenable on agricultural steel is an oil quench mid-carbonish steel, but the only way to be sure how it will behave without being able to source the steel is to make a test coupon and try it out.

[Daswulf]

On 7/1/2024 at 12:24 AM, George N. M. said:

anyone tried a cordless angle grinder?

I had an older Makita but it would trip the fault when using any kind of pressure. 

I ended up trading it in and getting a milwaukee cordless. I'm very happy with its performance. As Ede said, the duration of use does depend on the battery size. Just for cuts it will last longer than continual use with wire wheels. I recently put mine to the test when the PAABA were wire wheeling a cemetary fence to repaint. The 8ah batteries lasted way longer than the 5ah. 

I also got a cordless portaband saw. I really like it as well but if I had to pick one it would be the angle grinder. 

[gewoon ik]

Yes makita. Its ok. Does its job. Battery last a long time when only cutting. Grinding not so.

I have it for the small job that is shorter than running an extension cord. Or where that is not an option.

It is heavier in use than my 900watt dewalt (cordless is also 900watt). And less powerfull than my other makita (1800watt) but that thing is heavy. 

All 125mm discs

Batteries i had with other tools.